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Hi everyone

So it’s been a while. I wanted to share with you guys a couple of funny stories from Japan. I guess I haven’t done such a great job on keeping you guys updated eh? Well maybe I’ll put more effort into this blog again. 

I love living in this small town. The other day, when I got to school, the secretary says to me. Amanda someone called about your tire. They were driving behind you today and they think you need to put some air in your back tire. I couldn’t believe it. It cracked me up but wait it gets better.. So I drive up to the gas station after school and when I pull up the gas attendant already knows why I am here. ‘oh yeah, you need air, come this way!’. You just don’t get that kind of love and care in a big city. Or would you call it stalking? I’m curious to know how you would feel in my shoes. In some sense I feel taken care of and in others I think it’s a little creepy and miss being invisible.

Another funny story for you from the past month. In my first year classes we’ve been studying the third person singular. So I brought in this picture of Tom and introduced him to the class. This is my friend Tom. He is from Canada. He speaks French and English.. etc.  First, I had to convince the kids that he was NOT my boyfriend.  Then this one kid really liked the pose and kept doing it over and over again. He kept asking me to show him the picture and then would reproduce what we started to call the ‘Tom pose’.  I then got the boys to do it again and I got a picture :). If ever Tom decides to come to Japan, he will be instantly loved

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I have a third story that is a bit more serious. The other day, I was driving my friend Ayumi home and she tells me ‘I want to read the Bible’.  My mouth dropped. She continued ‘someone told me it’s a good way to improve my English’.  I smiled. God is good. I told her ‘I have a Bible, would you like one?’, I wish you could have seen her face ‘really??’. At that point, I felt God whisper in my ear ‘You see? I told you I would use you! Anyway,  lookng forward to what is going to come from that.

I just got back from the Jet Christian Fellowship Fall retreat. What an amazing weekend! I’ve been the coordinator for three of them now and it gets easier to do every time.  This one I really felt the love of God’s family. For the past 4 or 5 months we’ve been praying for unity in the group and for the spirit to speak through Omar and it was amazing to see those answered.  I truly believe that God brought each person there. Over and over again I kept hearing ‘I really needed this, thank you’. It was such an encouragement.

I’ve been thinking, who will be next to come to Japan? Apparently coco is thinking about it. That would make me SO ridiculously happy. Please think about it little sis, I would LOVE to have you. Do it this year before you get preggers cause we all know that’s next!

Gotta run

I’ll work harder at this blog thing.

Love you

Amanda

 

Zephaniah 3:17

So I'm in a really good mood so it's a good time to blog! I feel like every time I've blogged over the past little while it's been lame and boring and depressing, so it's time for a little sunshine!  This week is golden week in Japan, which means that there are 3 national holidays in one week. WOOT WOOT! The first one was yesterday and I spent the day with my favorite australian girl in Japan, Melanie. We took her little K-car up to Aizu to check out a bunch of old buildings that date back to well.. a long time ago. The cool thing about them are the roofs. The weather was perfect and we had to laugh at ourselves for bringing our fleeces. Aizu is a bit north and has cold winters, we thought it might be a little cooler. It was over 20 degrees yesterday! Made me a happy camper! Anyway, we spent the morning walking around there and then got hungry. Apparently every restaurant in town only served soba (buckwheat noodles) which we both don't really like, but we sucked it up for one meal. I was sad to find out after we had finished that they had bear soup on the menu, I TOTALLY would have had bear! (They eat all kinds of weird things in Japan, crab brain, raw horse meat, beef tongue... but I guess every country has it's oddities but I couldn't remember, do we eat bear in Canada?) After that we headed to another part of Aizu that is known for its pottery. Ever since i came to Japan, I've always wanted to make pottery. I knew that they did it somewhere in Aizu, but I didn't know where and you usually need to book ahead. We were pretty lucky yesterday, we went in and asked at the information and they gave us directions to a place really close by. We walked in and this one guy works this very little pottery shop. He was sitting there at at his wheel, working on something. He was SO nice, and explained to us exactly what we needed to do. Then it was our turn. Mel had done it before so she was pretty much a pro. I was much more nervous and didn't talk much as I worked on my cup. They bake it and paint it and send it to you after a month or so. It was TONS of fun! Here's a picture or two, but the rest are on facebook.

Old building.. cool roof huh?


The man who owned the place, really nice, really patient with me, a stupid foreigner.

Mel being a pro

The cup is almost finished...

Today at school was pretty chill. Had only a couple of classes. It's going to be a rather slow week since the first and second years have their fields trips tomorrow and I will spend the day at my desk. ugh, not looking forward to that.  I had physio today and I was really pleased, my foot is getting quite a bit better at the whole movement thing. I mean those 20 minutes twice a week are tough and they are PAINFUL but the more I do them, the more the foot can move. Since the weather has been nice, I've been taking short walks outside my house everyday. I can make it as far as the post office and back without getting too exhausted.  I usually stop at the vending machine and get myself a coke :) 
Today's walk was especially nice.. made me realize how much I love living in this village.  First, I walked past Masaya and Naoya, two kids I play taiko with who were sitting outside the salon where their mom works. One yells *oh, hello!*, the other says *doko iku desu ka* ( where are you going?) I answer in English *I am going to the post office*. I smile because a year ago he wouldn't of understood that, but now he smiles back and nods. As I go by the fish shop, two elementary school kids come out running and yelling *AMANDA SENSEI!*. They walk with me for a minute, asking me if my leg is ok and when will I be making my next visit to the elementary school. I keep trekking towards that red post box, which is today's objective. On my way back, the youngest of the two girls comes running across the street with a crepe in her hand. The man who runs the shop offered it through this cute little 7 year old... I offer money but he'll have none of that and sends me on my way.  I make it back to the salon where  the two boys are still hanging out and their mom comes out for a while. She tells me all about how the taiko group is going and asks me which size I want for our new t-shirts. As I take off again, she say *ganbatte ne!* (translates into keep persevering, keep it up). But, my favorite part of today's short walk happened right at the end. The postmen here ride little scooters. One had passed by me earlier, nodding and smiling at me. He was on his way back now and he pulled over just to have a chat. I've never met him before but I'm sure he's brought mail to my door. He asked me what had happened to my foot and how much longer before i would be all better. He was really nice. Just before he took off he says *Mo sukoshi ne* ( a little longer eh?) and I say *ganbarimasu* (I'll keep trying).
Once in a while, I have moments like this.. I realize how much I love it here. I realize how far I've come in two years. I'm proud of myself but mostly I'm amazed at how cool it is that God worked things out for me to be here. Japan? WHO would have thought??? Not even on my list of places to visit and yet, here I am. :)
Can you tell the weather is nicer and I'm doing better? I'll be back 100% in a few weeks. Until then.. Ganbarimasu!
Loves
Amanda

  

Well guys it’s official, I am now part robot! Can you believe that? That my friends, is my weight bearing brace. How ridiculous is that?  Slowly but surely things are changing… It’s been 6 weeks since I had my surgery. My foot is healing rather nicely if you ask my doctor and rather slowly if you ask me. Unreal how badly I have managed to hurt this foot.  Who would have thought that it would be this complicated?

Anyway, so I spent my last two Monday mornings at the hospital. Last week, they took a fitting for the brace and gave me a bill for 700$ and this week, I got to receive this baby!  I was thinking that I might be walking with this but it’s a lot harder than it looks and I am always worried about actually putting weight on that leg.  I still need the help of one crutch to keep good balance and walking is a bit frustrating because it’s a lot slower than with the crutches…. I had become an expert and now I have to slow down until I get used to this brace.  It’s weird because it’s a lot bigger than I thought it would be and it comes pretty high up on my knee so a lot of things that I did I bent that knee to do… I can’t do that anymore. How will I vaccum? LOL… I’ll have to think of something.

It’s cherry blossom season in my ken. Cherry blossom season is ridiculously important in Japan, everyone gets really excited about it. On TV and in the newspaper, they put up a schedule of where and when is the best time to see sakura (cherry blossoms) in full bloom.  It’s all calculated! Also, people get together for hanami (cherry blossom viewing) parties, which is when they get together and have a picnic under a cherry blossom tree. They drink a lot of sake and they eat a “sweet” dessert called dango.  I was supposed to go hanami-ing on Sunday with Mel and Hideko but it ended up raining. We saw some pretty cherry blossoms from the car but we didn’t do much walking around. We might try again next weekend somewhere a bit closer.  We ended up at the all you cant eat yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurant. We ate and grilled and ate and grilled. I am sure that Dad and JS would love this place. You grill your own meat on a small grill on your table right in front of you. It’s a great 90 minutes of all you can eat fun!

Also, Golden Week is coming up in Japan. It’s like a few days of national holidays in a row which make for 4 day weekend. My friends Sarah from Shizuoka, Charlie from Chiba and Luke from Nagano are all coming to hang out at my apartment. Not sure what we will do in those four days or what I will feed them but I’m really excited about seeing all of them.  They are all going back to the States in July and I feel like I am loosing some really good friends. I don’t think I even realize how much I depend on Sarah for moral and spiritual support.  She is one of my best friends in Japan! She lives far away from me but she’s never let that stop us from seeing each other. I love that about her. We’ve done a lot together and I am going to miss her terribly.

Oh and I’ve taken to listening to news in French everyday because I miss the sound of it. I’ve also been trying to learn a Bible verse a week. Last week’s was Joshua 1:8 which says

‘Do not let this Book of Law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night so that you would be careful to do everything it says. Then you will be prosperous and successful.’

Oh the habs are so winning the cup this year.. I can feel it!

Hope the snow is melting for you people in Canada! Love you tons

Amanda